Sun Prairie, WI -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today cautioned against current budget proposals which would spend a budget surplus that does not yet exist and endanger the long-term health of the Social Security Program.

"For more than 30 years, the federal government has used budgeting sleight-of-hand to hide the deficit with money from the Social Security Trust Fund," Feingold said. "The surplus everyone is so eager to spend in current budget proposals is a result of that budgeting trick, and like a trick the surplus is an illusion."

The Administration's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2000, and many of the alternative budgets that have been outlined, attempt to use budget surpluses to cover their costs. But Feingold explained that there is no surplus without adding Social Security Trust Fund balances into budget calculations. According to the Congressional Budgeting Office, instead of a budget surplus, the federal budget will still be saddled with a $4 billion dollar deficit in fiscal year 2000.

"Congress is in danger of falling back into its old -- and expensive -- habit of borrowing and spending," Feingold said. "Unless we can buckle down and employ the same kind of budget discipline that has helped bring us to the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history, we won't be seeing a real surplus anytime soon, and we will have wasted years of hard work."

Feingold, who has served as a member of the Senate Budget Committee since 1997, has introduced seven new bills that will protect the Social Security program, including the Social Security Protection Act of 1999, to ensure that Congress reaches a balanced budget through fiscal restraint instead of using the Social Security Trust Fund to cover up the budget deficit, and six bills to cut wasteful spending.

Feingold's 12th Listening Session of 1999, and 444th since he was first elected in 1992, was held at Sun Prairie's Colonial Club, beginning at 8:15 a.m. Feingold's 13th Listening Session of his term, and 445th since he was first elected, took place at the Lodi City Hall beginning at 10:30 a.m. Feingold has renewed his pledge to hold Listening Sessions in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties every year, after keeping his promise to do so during his first term.